Gundam Modeling Tutorial - Wash

Weathering wash is the best and easiest way to create the best looking panel lines.

Definition

Now, what is a wash? A wash is just a thinner down paint. Instead of doing 50% paint and 50% thinner as you do in air brush. You create a wash by putting more parts of thinner. Say, 1 part paint and 7 to 10 part thinner.

Prereq

Make sure you are using the right type of paints when you are doing a wash. The paint you used to wash has to be of different type than the one you used for the actual model. So, use enamel type of paint to wash if you used acrylic type of paint in base coating your model. If you use acrylic on acrylic, it will create a big mess. Enamel on Acrylic or Arcylic on Enamel will work. (I always use Enamel on Acrylic).

Grossy paint creates a grossy surface. Flat paint create a flat surface. For gundam panel lines, you have to make sure the surface you wash on is grossy. If you try to wash on a flat surface, the wash will go everywhere. If you have already painted something flat, just put a grossy transparent coat (topcoat) before you wash.

Basic How to Steps

Create the wash. Assume you used Tamiya arcylic paint to paint your model. Use 1 part of enamel paint and 7 parts of enamel thinner to create the wash. My fav brand for enamel is Humbrol. Common color for the wash is black, brown, redish brown, or whatever color you want your panel lines to look like.

Apply the wash. Use a small paint brush to apply the wash. You can apply the wash to just create the panel lines or you can apply the wash to the model as a whole to create weathering effect. Just make sure the paint surface you apply the wash to is completely dry.

Let it dry. Depends on where you are on earth, you will let the wash dry for 20 min to 50 min. In theory, you can use cold air blower to make the drying process faster.

Wipe the wash off. Here is the fun part. Use a q-tip, clean cloth, or good quality kitchen roll and dip it into the thinner. Again, if you are using enamel to wash, dip it into enemal thinner. The more thinner you get, the more wash you will get off the model. Now, use the item (q-tip, cloth, etc.) to wipe the wash off the model. Make sure you are gentle, so you don't demage the paint under the wash.

Let's take a look. Here is my fav brand to use as wash.

Oh, make sure you have gloves on in some cases to make sure you don't put dirt on the model.

Make the wash. 1 paint part and 7 paint thinner will do. Just experiment with it.

Apply the wash with a small paint brush. Don't be afraid. You will wipe off the excess later.

Just trust that it will come out :)

Now, you can clean it up with q-tip and thinner.

See, you just create the thinnest line on your gundam model.

You can create two thinner line like this as well. It looks much better than gundam marker since the marker makes the whole line looks so solid.